Mali - France Fighting Al-Qaeda - مالي

Continued air-raids on strongholds of the extremists in several towns under their control.

Algeria opens its air space for attacking Islamists in northern Mali.

The above picture is showing a jet fighter of the French air force while being refuelled in the air.

[Source: Al-Arabiya on January 14, 2013]

Islamic warriors retreat from their traditional positions and [concentrate] in "Diyabali", northern Mali.

Algeria closes the border to Mali, and France "realizes its [military] aims".

Picture: State of alert for Algerian [border] guards at the border to northern Mali.

[Source: Al-Arabiya on January 15, 2013]

Flag of Al-Qaeda / North African Branch

In recent years, Mali became more and more unstable while Al-Qaeda fighters and local rebels steadily gained influence. Kidnappings and beheadings of foreign citizens made Mali a no-go area for Western development and human aid staff. Furthermore, historic places in the ancient town of Timbouktou were destroyed by Islamists on several occasions, thus endangering the cultural inheritance of Mali.

The French intervention, based on France's responsibility as a former colonial power in West Africa, is being supported by members of the European Community: Belgium, Italy and Germany, the latter offering two Hercules planes as an additional air transport capacity. The U.S. are ready to provide logistic and intelligence support but refrain from sending troops to Mali because of its actual policy which forbids direct military support of any regime not based on democratic rules.

[Source: CNN and German media on January 15/16, 2013]

Dangerous Merging of Rebels and Islamist Fighters
[Al-Jazeera on May 27, 2012]
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The Mali Intervention - French Press Report

On Tuesday 15, French President François Hollande arrived in the United Arabic Emirates for negotiations on economic subjects and to discuss the question of the military intervention in Mali.

To Mobilize the Arabic Emirates
For five days, François Hollande has held numerous talks with Western and African [leaders] in order to mobilize the necessary means for a deployment of African forces in Mali. As Élysée [Palace] indicated, the French president needs to discuss with the Emirates' leaders [the amount of] help they could provide in the frame of the military intervention. In Abu Dhabi talks are expected with Cheikh Khalifa Ben Zayed Al-Nahyan, the president of the federation of the United Arabic Emirates, and with Mohammad Ben Zayed Al-Nahyan, the hereditary prince of Abu Dhabi. Later in the afternoon, he will meet with the vice-president and prime minister in Dubai, Cheikh Mohammad Ben Rached Al-Maktoum. Besides Mali, Syria and Iran will make part of the subjects treated.

[Source: L'Express magazine, Paris, on January 15, 2013]

Related subject on another blogspot of mine:
Mali - West African states targeting Al-Qaeda

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Nigeria - Islamic Separatist Leader Captured

On Sunday, January 14, Nigerian military has arrested a leader of the Islamist separatist movement Boko Haram that is responsible for deadly attacks targeting the Christian community as well as newspapers and government institutions in northern and central Nigeria.

[Source: BBC - Africa Service on January 14, 2013]

Boko Haram is considered to be behind two newspaper bombings
in Abuja and Kaduna [Source: Al-Jazeera on April 27, 2012]

Visitors from Nigeria to "blueprint news" on November 29, 2012:

Syria's Assad - The Ghost of Ghadafi - شبح القذافي

Bashar al-Assad denounces Syria's rebels as 'murderous armed criminals'
الأسد: الثوار من "القاعدة"، الإرهابيون الأجانب، المسلحون المجرمون

A defiant President Bashar al-Assad offered no compromise to Syria's rebels on Sunday, using his first public speech in six months to rule out any negotiation with an opposition he described as nothing more than "al-Qaeda terrorists" and "murderous armed criminals".

[Source: Daily Telegraph, London, quoting Assad's public speech from January 6, 2013.]

Almost immediately after the speech of Syria's president Bashar al-Assad, social networks like Twitter received lots of furious Arabic comments on Assad's still defiant attitude while facing his country gliding into chaos.
The following examples have been chosen from an article published by Al-Arabiya soon after the speech on January 6, 2013.

Another article by Al-Arabiya from January 7 reported the gist of Assad's speech, thereby quoting the Daily Telegraph article and its author Richard Spencer:

The following excerpts have been taken from the Daily Telegraph article, the whole text of which is available on the internet :

Mr Assad was greeted like a conquering hero by an audience at the opera house in Damascus, named after his father. It rose and chanted his name in scenes reminiscent of those arranged in 2011 for Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's appearances in the Libyan uprising.
ـ"ديلي تلغراف": خطاب الأسد يشبه آخر ظهور للقذافي

As he finished, he stepped down into the auditorium and was surrounded and lunged at like a pop star. ..........

However, neither Syrian diplomats nor Mr Assad have made reference to the immediate threat to his regime - rebels now hold suburbs of Damascus itself, within a few miles of where Mr Assad was speaking.

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Visitor access point to "blueprint news", activated yesterday, January 7, from U.S. Air Force base Incirlik / Turkey:

Technical remark: As country of registration (U.S.A.) and country of location (Turkey) are not fitting together, there is no access mark to be found in the global visitor map. However, a countercheck of the server address hinted at a location in South-Eastern Turkey.

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Visitor statistics for websites operated by Ulysses:

China and North Korea - Troublemakers in Space ?

Today, semi-official People's Network, Beijing, is quoting U.S. and Canadian media reports on China's experiments with an anti-satellite system that might endanger Western satellite navigation GPS. A Western expert is cited with his evaluation that China might soon be able to put its plans into practice, thereby referring to Chinese tests carried out in 2007 and 2010.

The People's Network article ends with a single phrase comment from China reading as follows:

中国军事专家宋晓军对《环球时报》说，能在太空领域互相摧毁，就相当于大国之间的核威慑。

China's military expert Song Xiao Jun (*) says to the "Global Times" report: There's capability of mutual destruction in space corresponding to the nuclear threat among great nations.

(*) Xiao Jun 晓军 = daybreak of the military (a), or: knowing the military (b) or: warn the military (c). Just another funny Chinese forename perfectly fitting with the subject .....

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Another report of People's Network is dealing with the New Year's Parade of 100.000 North Korean citizens on Kim Il Song Square in Pyongyang the day before and that was celebrating, among other blessings from North Korea's new leader Kim Jong Un, the successful December 12 launch of a Unha 3 rocket carrying an earth-observation satellite.

Syria - Statistics of Horror

News of the Day for January 4, 2013:
ثوار سوريا تمكنوا من السيطرة على مساحة و اسعة من ريف دمشق بعد 21 شهرا من بدء الثورة

21 months after the beginning of the revolution, Syrian rebels have gained control over wide areas in the suburbs of Damascus.

ثوار سوريا يحاصرون مطار "متغ" العسكري في ريف حلب

Syrian rebels besiege ["Matagh"] military airfield in the suburbs of Aleppo.

[Source: Al-Jazeera, Arabic TV, on January 4, 2013]

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Victims of War in Syria


المرصد السوري لحقوق الإنسان يقول إن أكثر من أربعين ألف قتيل هي حصيلة عام 2012

The observing post for human rights [i.e. Human Rights Watch] in Syria says more than 40.000 was the harvest of death for 2012.

المرصد السوري يقول إن عدد القتلى قد يتجاوز 100 ألف إذا ما أجري تحقيق جدي

The observing post in Syria says the [overall] death toll should have passed 100.000 when a serious investigation was realized.

[Source: Al-Jazeera, Arabic TV, on December 31, 2012]

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Victim Statistics for Homs Township:

حمص... 8 آلاف قتيل و مليون نازح

Headline: Homs ... 8.000 dead and one million fled.

ـ600 عائلة محاصرة في أحياء عدة في مدينة حمص

600 families under siege in numerous [neighbourhoods] of Homs township.

ـ185 ألف عائلة متضررة في حمص بحسب الشبكة السورية لحقوق الإنسان

In Homs, 185.000 families are suffering according to the Syrian network for human rights.

ـ8 آلاف قتيل منذ بدء الثورة بينهم أكثر من 300 قضوا جراء التعذيب

8.000 dead since the beginning of the revolution, including more than 300 [because of] torture.

ـ70 ألف جريح بينهم 17 ألفا بحاجة لعلاج مستمر

70.000 wounded, including 17.000 needing permanent treatment.

ـ35 ألف بين معتقلين و مختفين قسريا

35.000 among [those] imprisoned and vanished [fell subject to violence].

[Source: Al-Jazeera, Arabic channel, on January 4, 2012]

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Town Shelling by Syrian Government Troops:

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Visitor access points to "blueprint news" between December 19, 2012, and January 6, 2013, for visitors coming from the Washington area and from the Arabic Emirates. Click to the pictures for a better resolution !

North Korea - Change of Politics

On his new year's speech, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un surprised us with a change of politics. Here's a quotation from the more specific part of his speech as has been published in Chinese by New China Network today, 1st January 2013:

金正恩发表新年贺词 以征服宇宙气魄开创新局面

Kim Jong Un delivering his New Year's speech.
A youngster in old-fashioned cloth and of [cosmopolitan attitude] introducing new aspects.

要为把国民经济先行部门和基础工业部门搞上去采取决定性措施，以使煤炭、电力、冶金、铁路运输部门领先，巩固经济强国建设的跳台。特别是要使煤炭、冶金工业部门掀起革新，搞活国家的全盘经济。要下大力量振兴直接关系到人民生活的部门和单位，增加生产，使人民得到更多的生活实惠。

[We] need to take the vanguard branches of national economy and basic industrial branches and start to employ decisive measures in order to push in the lead such branches [dealing with] coal, electricity, metal processing and railway long-distance traffic, such strengthening economy as the [platform] of construction of a powerful nation. What is particularly needed is an upsurge of innovation in industrial branches [dealing with] coal and metal processing which might stimulate the complete array of national economy. [We] need to bring about great strength [in order to] vigorously develop a direct relationship with [all] fields of life of the people and their units [i.e. organizations], strengthen production and make people receive even more [material] benefit of living.

Happy New Year 2013

Localized visitors to "blueprint news" on 29-31 December 2012.
(click to the image for a better resolution !)

Syria - Gliding Into Hell

واشنطن بوست: سوريا تنزلق إلى الجحيم

Washington [desolated]: Syria is gliding into a hell.

أوباما أعطى الأسد الضؤ الأخضر لاستخدام كل الأسلحة باستثناء الكيميائية لذبح شعبه

Obama gives Assad green light for using all arms with the exception of chemical [weapons] in [slaughtering] his [own] people.

[Source: Al-Jazeera, Arabic service, on December 31, 2012]

Editor's Note:
The above evaluation of the Obama administration, helplessly watching Syria to glide into disaster, seems to enrage many Syrians. However, any military intervention would be almost impossible in the frame of a global and regional constellation that is generally opposing such intervention even though for different reasons of the sides involved.

Assad Praising the Syrian Press

الرئيس الأسد: الإعلام السوري تمكن من ضرب امبراطوريات إعلامية حقيقية يقف خلفه ليس فقط المال بل القرار السياسي في العواصم الكبرى في العالم و هذا دليل نجاح الإعلام السوري

President Assad: Syrian media have the possibility to beat the "empires of information" that are [really] having behind them not only "the money" but as well the political intention [prevailing] in major capitals of the world. And that is a [proof] of success of the Syrian media.

[Source: Al-Jazeera, Arabic service, on December 31, 2012, quoting an interview with Bashir al-Assad on Syria's national TV.]

Editor's Note
As to Bashir al-Assad, his attitude can only be understood as some kind of "loss of reality" thinking, not rarely to be found in the final stage of a dictator's career.

However, there is some truth in his words when he argues that "empires of information" are not really independent. Sure, he is speaking of CNN and Al-Jazeera, both media organizations enjoying vast international acceptance and influence. Considering some information treatment by CNN, I feel uneasy with the fact that news of high importance are handled in a rather superficial way as time on air is granted only on the basis of how to feed an auditorium that, long ago, turned into a sensation-seeking herd feeding on the special kick of, especially, bad news. The obvious goal of news shows like "Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer" or any "Developing Story" in the daily news is to keep visitors watching at almost any price which can be regarded as a circumstance rather hampering any adequate reporting of news events. In comparison with CNN, Al-Jazeera seems to follow a rather moderate way of combining breaking news with their related background stories, yet, both media giants are under a similar and increasing economic pressure which makes it difficult for them to follow a neutral strategy. When it comes to political influence, I sometimes observed some tendency of thinking on, both, CNN and Al-Jazeera which might be due to a personal inclination or, rather, the slight difference between personnel coming from different ethnic and social communities which is nothing to worry about.

Syria - Chemical Weapons Out Of Control ?

Arabic background information further down !
Last Update: December 29, 2012.

Yesterday, December 27, France 24 - International news quoted a report by Agence France Press AFP. The gist of it is as follows:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II in Amman recently to discuss violence in Syria and the country's chemical weapons stock, Israeli media said Thursday [i.e. Dec 27].

Public radio, as well as several local newspapers, said Israeli and Jordanian officials had confirmed the meeting, which was first reported in the Al-Quds al-Arabi daily on Wednesday.

A spokesman for Netanyahu declined to comment on the reports.

The date of the meeting has not been reported, but Israeli media said the meeting focused on the regional threat posed by Syria's chemical weapons stocks.

"Both sides arrived at the meeting with maps in hand," the Yediot Aharonot daily said. "Their maps marked the various sites across Syria where the forbidden weapons are being stored."

The newspaper cited Jordanian officials as saying the king and Netanyahu "raised situation assessments about the 'day after Assad,' and examined the danger posed by the chemical weapons in Syria to the neighbouring countries, first and foremost Jordan and Israel."

On December 27, the information was distributed as well by People's Network, Beijing. Today, December 28, it can be found on a large variety of Chinese networks. The following screenshot has been taken from an official Chinese website in Hebei province dedicated to plannings and legal proceedings:

以色列和约旦领导人秘密商讨叙利亚局势

Israeli and Jordanian leaders held secret talks on the situation in Syria.

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Arabic Background Information

The below articles have been found in the archives of Al-Quds al-Arabi, the well-known Palestinian daily, during a search for information related to "chemical weapons":

The first article, dating back to December 4, is quoting the Jordanian foreign minister Nasser Judeh saying the use of chemical weapons in Syria would necessarily lead to an international intervention.

The second article, dating back to December 24, is citing Russia's foreign minister Sergej Lavrov saying the use of chemical weapons in Syria would be kind of "political suicide" for the Syrian regime of Bashir al-Assad.

The third article that is showing a map of Syria seems to be a mere update of the above article from December 24 quoting Russia's foreign minister. Furthermore, that article is citing a related AFP report.


Above: A Syrian store of chemical weapons / Map of Syria

Another related blogspot of mine published in December 2012:
Syria - Assad's Dangerous Games

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مرسي: أمن منطقة الخليج مسؤولية قومية و سنقف ضد أى تدخل عسكري في سوريا

Morsy: Security of the Gulf region is [a matter of] national responsibility and will [smash] any armed intervention in Syria whatsoever.

[Source: Al-Jazeera, Arabic TV, in their broadcast "Revolution Talk" on December 29, 2012. The quotation of Egypt's president Morsy has been taken from his speech before Egypt's parliament on the same day.]

Egypt - Constitution Accepted - UPDATE

December 24 Update included.
Official Results from December 25 further down !

Above: Predicted overall result for the second stage of voting.

11:57 CET / 10:57 GMT

After the counting of more than 63% of votes following yesterday's second round of voting, it becomes clear that president Morsy's constitutional draft has been accepted by an overwhelming majority of 70.9%, result published at 10:00 GMT this morning by the Arabic channel of Al-Jazeera. Rural areas are approving the new constitution by even more than 80%. Only the Red Sea tourism resorts bring about some 60% of votes in support.
Even though urban areas present lower support than rural areas [i.e. Kairo / al-Jiza 66.3%, Alexandria 55%, Suez 70.4% and Port Said 51.1% votes in favor of the constitution], these first results are already proving widespread agreement to the president's constitutional draft which is considered to promote a democratic state based on Islamic values.

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Evening Update for December 23, 2012:

According to different European media (German TV / ARD, France 24), last voting results in the Egyptian referendum are showing a 64% majority of all votes in favor of president Morsy's constitutional draft. Voting participation should have been rather low at 32%.
A member of the electoral commission said that any voting results are to be considered as inofficial up to now. As expected, the opposition has already voiced accusations of fraud during the referendum.

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Morning Update for December 24, 2012:

Above: Latest election results predicted by Al-Jazeera on December 23/24 and worked up by Ulysses.

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Official Results from December 25, 2012

Nearly two-thirds of voters in the Egyptian referendum have supported a proposed new constitution, the electoral commission has announced. In all, 63.8% of voters cast Yes ballots in two stages, on December 15 and 22. The commission announced the result live on state-run Nile News TV. Parliamentary elections must now take place within two months.
[Source: BBC, London on December 25, 2012]

Above: Official Results published by Egypt's Electoral Commission.

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Editor's Note and Final Evaluation:

The overall result of both rounds of voting is presenting some 63,8% of votes in favor of the new constitution according to the electoral commission and different international media.

Unfortunately, the outcome of the second round of voting has not been mentioned. However it can be counted by using the outcome of the first round of voting from December 15 which was 56.6% according to CNN [news service on December 27].

Two times the average value (63.8%) is equalling the sums of first round (56.6%) and second round (x%) of voting:
63.8 + 63.8 = 56.6 + x
127.6 = 56.6 + x
x = 71

The counted outcome of the second round of voting should therefore be 71%. The result fits perfectly with the predicted 70.9% published by Al-Jazeera on December 23 (diagram on top of this blogspot). This implies an increase of Yes-votes for the constitution in the second round of voting !

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Egypt's Constitution - 2nd Round of Voting

ـ25 مليون ناخب مصري في 17 محافظة يدلون بأصواتهم في المرحلة الثانية و الأخيرة من الاستفتاء على الدستور الجديد

25 Million Egyptian voters in 17 districts are [presenting] their vote in the second and last round of the referendum for the new constitution.

During the second round of voting for the constitutional draft in Egypt, vice-president Mahmoud Mekki (above picture left) declares his resignation from office.

محمود مكي يقول إنه استقال لأن العمل السياسي لا يناسب طبيعة تكوينه كقاض

Mahmoud Mekki says he resigns because the political work doesn't [offer] a quality in its structure [suitable for] a judge.

مشروع الدستور المصري الجديد لا ينص على وجود نائب لرئيس الجمهورية

The legal [settings] of Egypt's new constitution don't fix the existence of a vice-president to the republic.

مكي يقول إنه قدم استقالته في 7 نوفمبر الماضي لكن الاعلان عنها تأجل لأسباب مختلفة

Mekki says he [made up his mind] to resign [as early as] November 7, however postponed the announcement [because of] certain preparations.

[Source: Al-Jazeera, Arabic TV Special "Revolution Talk حديث الثورة" on December 22, 2012]